This geek's mission: to help your nonprofit achieve its mission

Month: May 2018

The wisdom of experience is priceless. PeopleFund – a nonprofit that provides small business loans and other business assistance – celebrated the wisdom of Austin business women at the “PeopleSpring, Ladies, Lunch & Learn” networking and leadership event in Austin on May 31st.

The focus of the luncheon event was a panel discussion and Q & A with three leaders in the business community: Deborah Whitby, Austin Plumbery Owner; Meme Styles, MEASURE Founder & President; and Quita Culpepper, KVUE Anchor. Some of the key pieces of wisdom the panel shared with the audience of women entrepreneurs included:

Spend time on setting business processes and procedures early;

When you are struggling for balance, don’t forget self-care;

Remember that your community is a source of energy;

Own your destiny.

Thank you panelists, PeopleFund and event sponsor American Bank for a wonderful afternoon and for providing an empowering space for female entrepreneurs.

The Texas Grants Resource Center’s May presentation was all about getting the best out of your nonprofit board. Long-time nonprofit consultant Tara Levy shared the top tips for leveraging your board to support your organization’s mission.

Tara is an experienced trainer and consultant on nonprofit leadership and management, including a decade assisting nonprofits at Mission Capital before launching her independent practice (Tara Levy Nonprofit Consulting). She has served nonprofits as a staff member, board member, and volunteer.

Here are just a few of Tara’s tips on board relations:

Mentor new board members (pair new members up with established members);

Have an annual board self-evaluation;

Do board succession planning (for example: consider having an Incoming Board President position);

You can learn how your nonprofit organization can use Twitter to support your mission. We’ll cover the basics: following and followers; conversations and proclamations; hashtags and handles. Participants will not only learn how Twitter can support your outreach strategy, we’ll also connect attendees on twitter – taking your community to the next level. This class will take place in a computer lab, so please come ready to log in to your (or your organization’s) Twitter account for exercises.

I hope to see you on June 21st at noon!

Take-aways:

Philosophy:

Get an overview of social media strategy and how Twitter fits in to a nonprofit’s social media strategy.

Logistics:

Tweets: Who sees them? What is the best content? When should I tweet? Where is my content seen? Why should my nonprofit tweet?

How do I use: #s, @s, lists, direct messages, notifications?

How do I “create community” (and gain followers).

Other Outcomes:

Connecting with classmates on Twitter.

Learning about conversations and proclamations: Who am I writing to? Who can see my tweets?